Organization

About us

While the high point of our activities is a biannual festival held in a number of Dutch cities, the organization also arranges performance tours, training programs, workshops, artistic residencies, co-productions, educational programs, film screenings, symposiums, debates and other activities throughout the year. These take place both in the Netherlands and in the area itself.

The organization believes that original, vital and creative contemporary work is being made in the area which touches on a wide range of subjects relevant to the region and the wider world. These works are interesting to audiences everywhere including the regular dance and theater-goers, but also a new public with an affinity to the region through interest or heritage.

Dancing on the Edge collaborates with a wide range of partner organizations in order to stimulate mutual artistic exchange, provide development and performance opportunities for artists, and to challenge existing conceptions and stereotypes.

Vision

Dancing on the Edge believes in the power of art and culture to build bridges and address issues. We believe that art can ask questions, bring people together and offer new views to break through ingrained patterns. In today’s globalised world, questions of identity and diversity are the order of the day, and the arts can address these questions through different, exciting viewpoints and collaborations.

Sometimes, art also aims to be contentious and painful, and to point out the power of difference, helping to form a more subtle and informed view of the world. While generating mutual understanding, encounters between different forms of art and culture can also enrich and strengthen the Dutch arts sector, helping to promote its international position and to serve a changing population at home. Dancing on the Edge stresses the possibility of adding variety to Western art norms by focusing on art from the Middle East and North Africa, which creates exciting and contemporary variations on its intercultural heritage.

Mission

Dancing on the Edge aims to stimulate artistic exchange with the Middle East and North Africa. The MENA region is an inspiring area with a long and rich cultural tradition, where a new generation of dance and theater makers are now producing original, relevant, vital and creative work.

The goals of the exchange are to enrich the cultural sector (focusing on contemporary performing arts) of the Netherlands and, if possible, in the rest of the ‘Western’ world, and to widen the scope of reflection in the social debate. The exchange also aims to contribute to building up and reinforcing the arts sector in the MENA region.

Crew

Artistic Director | Gary Feingold

Business Director | Marta Rozsa

Program Manager | Natasja van ‘t Westende

Office Manager & Assistant Marketing | Bart Buytenhek

Festival Producer | Sam Tomlow Kamerbeek

Festival Marketing Manager | Lodewijk Rondeboom

Film Program | Natasja van ‘t Westende, Eddy Appels/ Beeld voor Beeld in cooperation with ProAction Film and ArteEast

Arts & Mind | Natasja van ‘t Westende

Culture Education Program | Noortje de Gier

Commercial Fundraising | Nabila Harboul

Festival Performance Program Committee | Alan Yadegarian, Feri de Geus, Gary Feingold, Leo Spreksel, Nan van Houte, Natasja van ‘t Westende, Sabri Saad El Hamus

Performance Scout | Neil van der Linden

Board | Erik van der Schaft, Felix Guttmann, Martine van Dijk, Rola Nassar, Samira al-Zwaini